Centre notifies regulations to check caste bias on higher education institutions' campuses

New Delhi: The government has notified new regulations mandating all higher education institutions to form "equity committees" to look into discrimination complaints and promote equity, according to officials.

The University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, mandated that these committees must include members of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), the Scheduled Castes (SCs), the Scheduled Tribes (STs), persons with disabilities, and women.

A draft of the regulations was made public for feedback in February last year.

The document was issued after the Supreme Court told the UGC to submit the new regulations while hearing a plea by the mothers of Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadvi, questioning the implementation of the 2012 UGC regulations.

"Every HEI shall establish an Equal Opportunity Centre to oversee the effective implementation of policies and programmes for disadvantaged groups; to provide guidance and counselling regarding academic, financial, social and other matters; and to enhance the diversity within the campus."

"Provided that if a college does not have at least five faculty members to establish the Equal Opportunity Centre, the functions of the centre of the college shall be performed by the Equal Opportunity Centre of the university to which the college is affiliated," the notification read.

The Centre shall coordinate with civil society, local media, police, district administration, nongovernment organisations, faculty members, staff, and parents to realise the objective of these regulations.

"The Equal Opportunity Centre shall coordinate with the District Legal Services Authority and the State Legal Services Authority concerned to achieve the objectives of these regulations in general and to provide legal aid in deserving cases.

"The Executive Council or the Governing Body or the Management Committee of the Higher Education Institution, as the case may be, shall nominate a regular professor or a senior faculty member who has an innate interest in the welfare of disadvantaged social groups as Coordinator of the centre," it read.

The Equal Opportunity Centre shall have an Equity Committee constituted by the head of the institution to manage the functioning of the centre and to enquire into discrimination complaints.

The regulations have mandated that the committee must have representation of OBCs, PwDs, SCs, STs, and women.

The term of its members shall be for two years, and the term of the special invitees shall be one year.

"Every HEI shall also constitute a smaller body to be known as 'Equity Squads' with such representation as is considered necessary for maintaining vigil and preventing any discrimination on the campus," the regulations said.

Vemula, a PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad, committed suicide in 2016, allegedly after being subjected to caste-based harassment.

Tadvi, a resident doctor at Topiwala National Medical College and BYL Nair Hospital, killed herself in 2019, allegedly after facing casteist slurs from her seniors.